Truth, lies, and the Trump Phone
On The Vergecast: how Trump Mobile works, WhatsApp ads, and the death of TV.
On The Vergecast: how Trump Mobile works, WhatsApp ads, and the death of TV.
David Pierce is editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.
The idea behind Trump Mobile is relatively straightforward. It’s easy to launch a mobile carrier these days, and it can be extremely lucrative — just ask Ryan Reynolds! You should know, though, that Trump Mobile is a pretty bad deal. And the network’s supposed flagship phone? We’re willing to bet that this $500, made-in-America, coming-soon device will end up being hardly any of those things. If it exists at all.
On this episode of The Vergecast, Nilay’s off doing business meetings or whatever, so David and Jake are joined by The Verge’s Dominic Preston to talk about all things Trump Mobile. They talk about the phones that resemble the Trump Mobile T1 Phone 8002, and whether any of them are a good deal in 2025. They talk about the rise in MVNOs, the many ways you can define “made in the USA,” and whether there’s an inkling of a good thing behind this obvious grift of a product.
After that, David and Jake talk through some big news in the TV world: namely, that TV is dying faster than anyone expected. They discuss the ongoing rise of both Netflix and YouTube, the underrated success of FAST networks, and what this all means for Hollywood as a whole. Plus, we totally predicted a new feature in Max, and we’re pretty proud of ourselves.
Finally, in the lightning round, we talk about the Senate’s confirmation of Olivia Trusty to the FCC, the onrushing of ads into WhatsApp, the GENIUS bill that’s big news for crypto, Threads and the fediverse, and what we like — and don’t — about the Framework Laptop 12.
If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, beginning with Trump Mobile:
And in streaming and TV news:
And in the lightning round:
